Canary song in the office again

I bought a canary today, a small yellow male who is a few years old. He
started singing when we put him in the cage I brought to carry him home and
he has been singing here in my office on and off all afternoon. I love to
hear the song of a canary or similar small birds and I have missed having
one in the house since my green singing finch died a few years ago.

My husband and I used to raise a number of small birds. Twenty years ago we
had a basement full of aviaries containing finches, canaries, pekin robins,
Java rice birds, crested parakeets, Bourkes parakeets and assorted other
birds. We had mostly small birds although I did have two conures and an
African grey parrot . When we moved we had a month between our old house
and our new one in which we had to live in a trailer. So we sold off most
of the birds.

When we got to the country we were so busy trying all the larger livestock
and raising things like peacocks and pheasants that we didn't get small
birds again although I had my green singer and we had Cruiser, a Senegal
parrot. We began raising dogs and our choice- Jack Russell Terriers - made
raising any other small animal in the house with them hard.

But recently after I remodeled my office and had some tall bookcases put in
I decided I really missed birds. Although the office contains a yorkie and
her son, a yorkie - jack cross because they do not play well with other
dogs, I decided the tall bookcases would be a safe place for a bird or two.
My dog groomer had a male canary for sale and so here we are again.

Hardy, the male office dog has not stopped staring at the bird cage since I
set it in here and that has been several hours. Cricket, his mother, has
basically ignored it. I do hope he doesn't kill himself or make a mess out
of things trying to reach the cage. It is 5 feet off the ground so I think
it will be ok. The little bird is used to dogs, being from a grooming
shop. He is already eating and drinking and singing so I think he feels at
home.

The good thing about canaries is that they are perfectly content to be the
only bird around. Even males and females fight unless they are in a huge
flight cage. I do intend to find a few females that I will house
separately, and eventually breed to him but there is no rush. I will get to
hear his wonderful singing as I work.

no longer organic

It’s very hot and humid here today. This weather is hard on people and animals alike and even though the garden is growing like crazy the humidity and heat are also excellent for diseases in the garden. Today I participated in a conference call about how to make homeowners aware of the serious tomato and potato disease late blight. Michigan State University Extension folk want everyone to be aware that the disease is in the state again this year. Controlling it on a homeowner level helps protect farmer’s crops. And homeowners knowing about how to control the disease will let them harvest tomatoes and potatoes this year. Last year many home gardeners lost their entire crop of tomatoes.

We discussed whether or not there was a good organic control and the consensus was unfortunately, is that there is not. When late blight hits your entire tomato or potato crop is usually gone in a few days. It’s too late to spray with chemicals after the disease attacks a plant; you can only protect plants with preventative sprays. For the first time in my entire adult life I am spraying my tomato plants with a fungicide on a regular basis. Last year I tried neem oil, considered to be organic- but I lost all my plants to late blight. Organic controls have to work and be readily available to consumers as well as affordable. Copper sprays and blends have some effect, but usually only delay plant death a short time.

I like being organic. I wish no crops had to be sprayed. However working on the front line and seeing the devastation of home gardens last year I am also a realist. I like fresh, vine ripened tomatoes. If I don’t grow them at home and go out to buy them at the farmers market you can bet that that farmer has treated the plants with something and probably something a lot stronger than I can buy and use at home. ( If you want recommendations for late blight control see my article on it here
Hopefully in a few years researchers will have bred late blight resistant plants and will have discovered cultural and organic controls that deal with it effectively. In the meantime if you grow tomatoes and potatoes- or cucumbers- which have their own new deadly disease called downy mildew- and you want to be sure of a crop you need to spray them preventatively. Don’t beat yourself up over not being organic. If you follow the label directions and wash the tomatoes well before eating you won’t be getting any more chemicals than when you apply most make up, shaving creams, and hair dyes, which most consumers do without thinking twice about.

Middle of a warm July

The smell of the oriental lilies blooming in front of the house keeps
wafting around on this hot, humid air - oh so delicious a smell. Almost
makes the heat and humidity worthwhile. We had a storm blow in last
evening- not too bad and it left about an inch of rain, which was nice
because I didn't have to water. The grass is starting to green up again.
I made sure we bought some bacon at the store today so we can have bacon and
tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow- I have a few ripe ones.

My rose of sharon is blooming and the buddleia is about to bloom too.
Everything is so early- I wonder what will be left to bloom this fall? And
I think it will be a long, warm fall.

Our 6 oldest hens are laying about 4 eggs a day now - although only one is
using a nest box. We have 6 nice nest boxes and they won't use them. I
explained to them politely that if they ever want to go outside and roam in
the big pen they need to learn where to lay their eggs. The younger set
should start laying soon. Just found out that one of them is actually a
rooster - saw it crow today- and I suspect another is too. They are
Ameraucanas. That makes a couple fewer hens than planned but we should
still end up with 14 hens.

Tomorrow morning, when its cooler I am going to experiment and move the nest
boxes to another spot. I may need to adjust the lighting so the boxes are
darker. They are laying on the floor down by the roosts and it is darker
there.

Frizzle, the old rooster and the two turkeys are roaming around the back of
the barn still. They jump over the outside pen wall and sit looking in the
grate that I put over the hole to the outside pen at the new chickens. I
don't want them inside because the turkeys eat eggs. And I think the young
roosters would make mincemeat out of Frizzle. So I have some decisions to
make soon.

I am trying to find some canaries to buy. I want one for my office and
maybe to start breeding them. I used to breed them as a kid and then we had
some when we had the big finch aviary but that was almost 20 years ago.
They have gotten scarce and expensive since then- or I just don't know where
to look. My dog groomer has a few but she didn't have any luck breeding
them this year. Maybe I can find someone who wants to trade roosters for
canaries- or turkeys for canaries, now that would work.

hot weather

I do not like hot weather. My plants are enjoying it but I am not. I have
never seen such happy thriving tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and melons. If
they don't get hit by one of the awful fungal diseases floating around
harvest should be good.

Our weather has been hot, humid but just on the edge of being too dry. We
get browning grass then a moderate rain helps out. I water for a few days,
then get a day or two off. Everything is 2 weeks a head of schedule in
blooming. By the end of summer there won't be any flowers left in the
garden. But I should be too busy canning and freezing the harvest to worry
about that - right?

Our oldest of the new hens are starting to lay fairly well. I am having
trouble getting them to use the nest boxes though. We have lost all but one
of the barn cats to some disease, even the cat we call the "visitor" seems
to have contracted it, she is still alive but has difficulty with balance
and walking and seems to be hanging around here full time so I can bury her.
I always thought she was immune to those diseases.

The barn swallows have came back to the nest they had last year over the
light in the horse stall. They are adding long hairs from Lily to the nest.
I am seeing a kingfisher on the pond quite often and that seems odd. It
doesn't seem like the habitat they would prefer. I also have a pair of
night herons nesting somewhere down there.

Saw a doe with a new, still spotted fawn on the way to town this morning.
It was a rainy, dreary morning and deer were in all the fields. The people
who think that deer are scarce- the stupid ones- should just take a drive
down our roads on a day like today. Deer are smarter than you think. If
you just drive by them and don't stop they ignore you pretty much- except if
they are trying to commit suicide. But if you stop and try to roll down
the window to take a picture they take off. I snapped a couple this morning
but they aren't very good.